'Provisional Agreement Rejected' Korean GM Union to Decide Next Month Whether to Resume Negotiations

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] The Korea Metal Workers' Union GM branch recently announced on the 28th that it will hold an expanded executive joint meeting on August 10 to decide whether to resume negotiations with management, following the rejection of the tentative wage agreement in a union member vote.

After discussing whether to resume negotiations at the executive meeting, the union will hold a Central Dispute Countermeasures Committee meeting to also consider whether to initiate industrial actions such as strikes and refusal of overtime work.

The union conducted a vote among members on the tentative wage agreement on the 26th and 27th, but the agreement was rejected as 51.15%, a majority, voted against it.

The agreement included a basic wage increase of 30,000 KRW and a one-time payment of 4.5 million KRW, but it fell short of the union’s original proposal (a monthly basic wage increase of 99,000 KRW and a one-time payment exceeding 10 million KRW).

Additionally, management’s decision to extend the production schedule of existing models at Bupyeong 2 Plant as much as possible, considering market demand, without specifying a concrete timeline, reportedly sparked internal opposition within the union.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.